Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (83651)	8/23/2007 7:30:44 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

The Iraq progress report (from the NIE) : • Fighting between Shiite groups "probably will intensify" as Iraqis increasingly take control of security. Violence has increased in southern Iraq as British forces there have started to withdraw. • Iraqi security forces "have performed adequately" when working with coalition forces but have not improved enough to operate on their own "on a sustained basis." • Sunni Arabs' opposition to al-Qaeda in Iraq has not translated into support for al-Maliki's government, which is dominated by Shiites. • Iran has increased its military support of Shiite extremist groups, sending explosively formed projectiles and other war materiel to Iraq. • Syria, another neighboring country, is working with sympathetic groups within Iraq to ensure its influence if Americans leave. Al-Maliki visited Syria earlier this week. • Sectarian violence resembling ethnic cleansing continues to displace populations and increases the likelihood that Iraq's neighbors will be destabilized. • Shifting coalition forces from fighting insurgents to supporting the Iraqi forces would "erode security gains achieved thus far." The only silver linings are : • There has been "measurable but uneven" progress in security, with overall attack levels across Iraq declining in seven of the past nine weeks. • Al-Qaeda in Iraq's ability to attack has been degraded by the U.S. troop increase, by opposition from Sunni tribal sheiks and by a backlash from average Sunnis. And even these are so tenuous that they can be gone anytime. Without the courageous College Republicans joining the fight, US troops are going to simply exhaust themselves the longer we stay there.

To: longnshort who wrote (83651)	8/23/2007 8:50:23 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 93284

Upcoming Friedman Unit (FU) deadlines : Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State (via Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense) "Mr. Gates said Tuesday that Ms. Rice had told him that her department needed six months to locate and prepare civil servants and contractors to send abroad [to expand the provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq]." - February 6, 2007 FU Deadline : August 6, 2007 (already over) Top advisors to Gen. David Petraeus in Baghdad "An elite team of officers, leading experts in counter-insurgency" "the US has six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat." - February 27, 2007 FU Deadline : August 27, 2007 Gordon Smith U.S. Senator, R-OR "Many of my Republican colleagues have been promised they will get a straight story on the surge by September. I won't be the only Republican, or one of two Republicans, demanding a change in our disposition of troops in Iraq at that point. That is very clear to me." - May 8, 2007 FU Deadline : September, 2007 Jim Moran U.S. Rep., D-VA "If we don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, September is going to be a very bleak month for this administration." - May 8, 2007 FU Deadline : September, 2007 John Boehner U.S. Rep., R-OH "By the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B." - May 8, 2007 FU Deadline : September-October, 2007 Norm Coleman U.S. Senator, R-Minn "There is a sense that by September, you've got to see real action on the part of Iraqis. I think everybody knows that, I really do." - May 8, 2007 FU Deadline : September, 2007 Tony Blair U.K. Prime Minister "Blair gives Iraq 12 months to be ready for handover" - October 23, 2006 FU Deadline : October 23, 2007